By Tabora Bojang
Telecoms minister Lamin Jabbie has told members of the National Assembly that government has partially lifted a moratorium on fibre installation by private telcos and that was why QCell has been allowed to deploy fibre cables around the country.
Jabbie who made his maiden appearance before NAMs since his appointment in November 2024 was asked by Foñi Kansala lawmaker Almamy Gibba to update the assembly about the company digging trenches and laying fibre optic cables from Upper River Region (URR) to the Kombos and whether government intended to liberalise the fiber optic cable services which are managed and owned by Gamtel.
Minister Jabbie said the government has “partially lifted the moratorium” and the current “deployment of fibre infrastructure from URR to the Kombos is being undertaken by QCell”.
However, he clarified that the partial lifting only permits operators to deploy fibre infrastructure for “backholding their own services but not to connect customers or third parties including international upstreaming”.
On Gibba’s request for documentation about the implementation of the project, the minister said he has instructed his staff to work with the industry regulator PURA to acquire all documentations.
Gibba told the minister that Gamtel officials had informed lawmakers that they had earlier on written to QCell instructing it to cease the digging which it complied with and demanded to know why the trenching resumed.
In response, Minister Jabbie explained: “As at the time the digging started and when the moratorium was put in place, I was not the minister. But when I came, I was given information and saw a letter that was written for the resumption of the roll out. We had a meeting with all the operators and we are addressing some of the key issues within that.”
Upper Saloum representative Alagie Mbow pointed out that there was a particular company that attempted to install fibre cables in the Kombos but was stopped by the government and he questioned whether “double standards” were not at play by allowing QCell to go ahead.
Minister Jabbie responded: “There was a moratorium and the company operating in Kombo stopped based on that earlier moratorium. Thereafter, the moratorium was lifted and all operators are supposed to benefit from the lifting because it is a temporary lifting.”
